Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP), USSR Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Karlovich Pugo, Acting President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev and First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council under the President of the USSR Oleg Dmitrievich Baklanov (from left to right) during a press conference in the press center of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the announcement of a state of emergency in the country. In order to prevent the signing of the Union Treaty, which was supposed to replace the USSR with a new federation of sovereign states, representatives of the GKChP removed USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev from power and declared a state of emergency in the country. Vladimir Musaelyan, Alexander Chumichev/TASS